A couple of weeks ago, I posted a commentary on the upcoming November election. The post was written out of a siege mentality, little hope, and an assessment that the working class has little to gain in the November election, but a lot to lose; nothing more. The MAGA Trump campaign seemed unstoppable. People who were not MAGA/Trump were in despair; far too many conversations about leaving for Canada or Mexico. Among those who were fighting back against MAGA, there was a grim determination to fight this campaign to the end, all with a background sense that this will probably be a failed fight.
What a difference a week makes!
With Biden out and Kamala Harris very likely to receive the Democratic nomination for President, the whole outlook of the Democratic base changed. In a week, an overflow of Democratic enthusiasm! In the space of a week, it dawned on millions of Democratic voters, the labor movement, civil rights activists, communities of poor and oppressed people that indeed, winning is very possible!
Enthusiasm is a wonderful thing! With enthusiasm and a sense of winning, the focus immediately turns to what we want to win. Civil rights and the possibility of a world without police violence and civil oppression are back on the table again. The right to vote is back on the table again. Women’s right to control their own bodies as a guaranteed right is back on the table again.
Shawn Fain of the UAW was interviewed on MSNBC a day ago (see that post below), and he spoke of the UAW’s four objectives; a living wage (more than a surviving wage), healthcare, a retirement system that makes retired life comfortable and worth living, And let’s not forget a life for working people that includes more than the right to work 12 hour days, seven days a week just to survive (remember “8 hours work, 8 hours rest, 8 hours for the thing we love best?”). Climate change is back on the table too, And I applaud Joe Biden’s announcement of Supreme Court reforms and term limits on Supreme Court Justices.
It seems right now that the overflow I was talking about is going hand in hand with an overflow of democratic possibilities and the possibility of a government that actually works for people and not for the billionaire class. And all that in just a week!
So I leave my gloom in the dust and let’s win this election!
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